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No mention of shootings as state police chief sails through confirmation

No mention of officer-involved shootings

By Milan Simonich

The New Mexican

Posted:
02/13/2014 02:02:17 PM MST

SANTA FE >> New Mexico State Police have been under a harsh spotlight because of officer-involved shootings and concerns about gaps in their training and skills.

But not a single state senator questioned state police Chief Pete Kassetas about those topics during his confirmation hearing Wednesday. Senators, in fact, asked Kassetas no questions at all.

Instead, they showered him with praise and joined the audience at the committee hearing in giving Kassetas a standing ovation. The committee's chairwoman, Sen. Linda Lopez, asked the crowd if there was any opposition to Kassetas' confirmation, then joked that nobody would dare speak out against him.

After Kassetas left the hearing, on his way to a 40-0 confirmation by the full Senate, members of the Rules Committee became more aggressive. They spent two hours grilling Larry Kennedy, a State Fair commissioner, about the event's finances and management practices.

Afterward, Lopez, D-Albuquerque, declined to allow a committee vote on the fair commissioner's confirmation, even though Republicans had moved and seconded his nomination. Republican Sen. Sander Rue of Albuquerque started to object to Lopez's ruling, but then backed down.

Sen. Mark Moores, R-Albuquerque, said there was a simple explanation as to why the Rules Committee had no questions for Kassetas but a full interrogation for Kennedy.

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"Everybody loves the police chief. apparently. ... They wanted to get to the State Fair commissioner. They were looking for another political dog-and-pony show," Moores said.

Moores, himself a member of the committee, said he had enormous respect for Kassetas. He said the chief had distinguished himself in high-profile cases.

"His performance in Roswell was stellar," Moores said of a school shooting last month that made headlines across the United States.

Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto, D-Albuquerque, missed the Rules Committee hearing because he was sick with bronchitis. Ivey-Soto, like Moores, said senators were content to vote for the police chief so they could launch into criticisms of the fair commissioner.

Ivey-Soto said senators should have questioned Kassetas, who earns $103,000 a year, about his officers' handling of a traffic stop in Taos last October that escalated to violence.

One officer, who recently had been hired by the state police, smashed a window of a van with his baton. The driver of the van subsequently fled. Then another officer fired shots at the van, which had five children as passengers.

The officer who used his pistol was fired, but Ivey-Soto said questions persist about how Kassetas' officers handled the traffic stop. At one point, he said, they were outmaneuvered by a 14-year-old boy who hopped out of the van and then back inside, locking out officers.

Ivey-Soto said he remained concerned about how well-trained the officers were. He said he would have posed questions about the officer who shattered the van's window.

Police lacked a good command of the traffic stop, and that was obvious before any shots were fired, Ivey-Soto said.

The Taos incident was one of several officer-involved shootings in recent months that have drawn scrutiny, including the Nov. 7 death of Santa Fe resident Jeanette Anaya. In that case, an officer fired at Anaya's fleeing vehicle 16 times after she refused to pull over and led the officer on a high-speed chase.

Sen. Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, was absent for the portion of the Rules Committee hearing when Kassetas could have been questioned.

Sanchez, the Senate majority leader and a trial lawyer, said Kassetas should have received scrutiny from the committee.

Sanchez said he has a good working relationship with Kassetas but would have asked the chief about training, officer-involved shootings and staffing problems.

"He's come to talk to me," Sanchez said. "I'm really surprised nobody brought up any of those issues. I would have asked those questions. We should have asked them."

For her part, Lopez said any perception that Kassetas was treated with deference by the committee ought to be raised with individual members.

A Democratic candidate for governor, Lopez has been criticized by Republicans on the Rules Committee for doing little on legislation and moving slowly on confirmations. Moores said pure politics had taken over, leading to the imbalance on how two nominees for important jobs were treated Wednesday.

"This committee could have met in the interim but didn't. Very few bills have been heard, but we can spend four hours on one confirmation" of a State Fair commissioner, Moores said.

Kassetas, 44, was selected last August by the Cabinet secretary of public safety to be state police chief. He has been a state police officer for 21 years and is the 21st chief in the department's history.

Though he was asked no questions by senators, Kassetas made a brief statement in which he said was humbled to be selected to head the department, a job that could have gone to any number of other officers.

State Sen. Pete Campos, D-Las Vegas, carried Kassetas' nomination to the Rules Committee. Campos described Kassetas as a man of unquestioned integrity who would make the state department better.

Many police officers and Gregg Marcantel, secretary of the state Department of Corrections, testified on behalf of Kassetas. All of them described Kassetas as a top professional who would make the state proud.

In contrast to Kassetas' hearing, questioning of State Fair commissioner Kennedy was so intense that Lopez even allowed a senator who does not sit on the Rules Committee to participate on it.

Sen. Tim Keller, D-Albuquerque, joined the committee at its table and was allotted time to question Kennedy.

Lopez said there was a precedent for this. In matters of high public interest, senators occasionally have been permitted to intervene in a committee that they are not part of, she said.